Aurora High School

Aurora High School is a fictional high school in Seattle, Washington, where all of the participants of SOTF ACT v5 attended before being moved to the island.

Aurora High School is an older public high school in urban Seattle. Established in 1947, the facility shows some signs of its age, but has generally been kept in fairly good repair. The three-story school building itself looks rather drab from the outside, painted in greys and browns, though inside, the walls are frequently adorned with murals. Aurora High is an odd school in terms of academics; while, for the most part, the program is solidly middle-of-the-road, the school offers Advanced Placement classes in nearly all of its subjects, making it attractive to those with a serious academic bent as well as those for whom it is simply the neighborhood school. The school also has a reasonable athletics program, and flourishing music and arts programs. The school has an open campus policy, meaning that students may come and go as they please while they are not in class. It is in close proximity to several inexpensive restaurants, as well as a mall, giving students plenty to do. The school mascot is the pelican, and its colors are grey, white, and pale blue.

Science Hall
Science classes are held on the third floor of the school, in a fairly secluded location. There are many lecture halls, as well as some labs, all fairly well-furnished. The school has been making a push to increase its math and science scores, and, as such, classes are usually fairly full. Since three years of science are required, and many colleges expect students to take science all four years, most students are familiar with this hall. The most commonly taken science class for seniors is Physics.

Math Hall
Located on the second floor of the school, directly beneath the science hall, the math hall is, if anything, even quieter. The walls here are somewhat uninviting, since the teachers tend to cover them with assignments and posters extolling the virtues of careers in mathematics. Students are required to pass at least two years of mathematics class. The math department has a higher rate of repeated classes than any other department in the school, something the teachers are looking to change.

Social Studies Hall
This is the hall for history classes, as well as language courses. As such, it is the most expansive hall in the school, taking up a large portion of the third floor. The hall is quite varied in character, with teachers decorating the areas near their classrooms as they please, and with many student projects displayed on the walls. The classrooms here are just as varied in character as the halls, with language classrooms displaying a strong bent towards culturally-appropriate decorations. Students are required to take at least three years of history, as well as two years of a foreign language. The languages offered by the school are Spanish, French, Latin, Vietnamese, and Mandarin Chinese.

English Hall
Situated on the second floor, the English hall is generally fairly populated, since it has many seats in the hallways, making it an attractive alternate lunch and study location. The classrooms here are very well-lit, as this side of the building has the most windows. Students must take some form of English class all four years of their stay, though there are several electives available that satisfy the senior year requirements without providing an overly rigorous academic challenge.

Electives Hall
This is where all the less academic classes are. Actually spanning segments of all three floors, in a rough stack, the electives hall is home to art classes, the band and orchestra rooms, the drama room, the cooking lab, and the yearbook/newspaper room. Students are strongly encouraged to take at least a year of artistic electives, since many colleges along the West Coast require this as an entry condition. The halls here are generally well decorated and inviting, since this is the most "fun" section of the school.

Library
The library is not as large as it perhaps could be, and is certainly not one of the school's more comfortable rooms. Located on the second floor, the library is lit by fluorescent lights, and is almost always somewhat messy and disorganized. The staff here is insufficient to keep up with the use the room receives, and thus student volunteers are relied upon fairly heavily. Most of the academic books are fairly new, but the selection of novels is rather sparse.

Gymnasium
Taking up a large section of the first floor, the gymnasium is very well lit and maintained. This is where gym class is held. There are several retractable baskets hanging from the walls, for smaller class games of basketball or for larger competitions. There are also some bleachers here, which can be compressed to stacks along the walls when not in use. Off to the side of the gymnasium is a mat room, for wrestling and private practice. There is also a large storage room, where athletic equipment and tables for table tennis are kept.

Lunch Room
Also on the first floor is the lunch room. Too small for the large student body, this is not a very popular spot to actually eat, even with the temperamental weather. Most students come here to get school lunches, then find somewhere else to actually eat them. Still, there are tables and chairs here, and it is necessary to come here to get school food, though the food itself has a poor reputation. The speakers in the lunch room tend to play local radio stations, making it a somewhat suboptimal place to study.

Auditorium
This is where school assemblies and ceremonies take place, as well as where the theatre department holds its shows. Situated on the first floor, the auditorium is not big enough to handle more than half of the school's population at any given time, so all-school assemblies are held in the gymnasium. During the lunch hour, the auditorium is usually fairly deserted, though students sometimes gather there if they are looking for privacy

Student Center
Located in the center of the first floor, this area is a large open space filled with rows of lockers, as well as tables, chairs, and benches. Most students come here repeatedly throughout the day, to retrieve or deposit books, food, love letters, and the like. The school takes a very dim view of decorations on the outside of lockers, so this space tends to appear rather dull.

Athletic Fields
Behind the school are some open spaces for sports events. Aurora High has a nice football field with bleachers, smaller baseball and soccer fields, and a tennis court. All of these areas are secured by fences and locked gates, though they are left open during daylight hours.

Parking Lot
This is the lot where student and faculty vehicles are parked. Due to the limited space, student parking is limited to the senior class, and only those members of it who have purchased a parking permit. While parking lots are often considered good places for illicit activity, Aurora's is watched by several security cameras, which stream their feeds to the principal's office. This has kept incidents of vandalism (or other mischief) very low.

Campus
This is the rest of the outdoor campus. It is not particularly large or beautiful, but there are plenty of grassy areas, as well as a couple of small hills. Three gazebos provide shelter from rain. The campus itself is bordered by a fairly busy street, so it is not particularly quiet during the day. This also encompasses the bus stop directly adjacent to the campus, which is technically off school grounds. A few students use it as a place to smoke, since tobacco use on campus is punishable by suspension.

Known Faculty

 * Deborah Freeman (Principal)
 * Carson Rasmussen (Vice-Principal)
 * Henry Delgado (Vice-Principal)
 * Howard Morgan (Aurora Security)
 * Agnes Garvey (Librarian)

Teachers

 * Ms. Souzanne Blanc (Art)
 * Mr. David Collins (English)
 * Mr. James Connor (History/Humanities)
 * Mr. Will Davidge (Science)
 * Ms. Virginia Dawkins (Theater)
 * Miss. Delia Gunderson (Government/Economics)
 * Mrs. Louise Havok (Math)
 * Mrs. Aisha Hubbard (Music)
 * Mr. Brian Leonard (French)
 * Ms. Evelyn Liddell (Science)
 * Mr. Roberto Sanchez (Spanish)
 * Mrs. Vanessa Sanders (Girls P.E.)
 * Mr. Jerry Shigen (English)
 * Mr. Michel Stanulis (Latin)
 * Mr. Grant Teital (Math)
 * Mrs. Tran Thi Linh (Vietnamese)
 * Mr. Matthew Westley (Mandarin)
 * Mr. Luis Ortega (Criminal Law)